Auckland Zoo new series of The Zoo

Missed tonights episode, what happened Chlidonias..?
 
episode seven

ah you would have liked it NZ Jeremy, they had baby tuatara on it. A female tuatara at the zoo had laid eggs so the pretty but not-very-eloquent keeper dug them up so they could be put in incubators. Another keeper, who may also have been pretty but was a man so I'm not one to judge, made a visit to Victoria University in Wellington to see a newly hatched tuatara from eggs laid at Auckland Zoo. Later in the programme some more babies from the University were delivered to the zoo for rearing.

The other two stories were the tiger cubs being vaccinated etc (there was some concern over a runty one that had a head-tilt but it turned out to be fine), and the elephants being locked away in their house so a couple of cheetahs could play chasey in the elephants' yard. A bit odd really.

Good episode though on account of the tuatara.
 
Dag nab it, that episode sounded pretty good, missed this weeks one too (I forgot and was out for a run)..!
 
episode eight

another good episode last night. The American alligator was moved to a larger enclosure (I think they said it was the old otter enclosure) and they made a big deal about how dangerous it was, using what looked like an entire roll of duct tape to keep its mouth closed.
[just for interest's sake, the only crocodilians in NZ are Auckland's alligator, one or two alligators at Ti Point, and a saltwater croc at Napier Aquarium. Wellington used to have an alligator too about 15 years ago and either Auckland or Wellington had a spectacled caiman at one point. The North Brighton Zoo in Christchurch had a saltwater croc that died in 1995 the year before the zoo closed]

The red pandas were also moved to a new enclosure, although they didn't say why or what the old one would be used for. One of them decided it would rather sit in the top of the tree than come down and be re-homed but they got it in the end.

A baby giraffe was born and named Forest, possibly after Gump (joke). They let him out into the Pridelands paddock where there was also a baby zebra and they played chasey for a bit. The keeper made one of the sillier ill-informed remarks I've heard for a while, something along the lines of "In the wild you often see the giraffes and zebras living in the same areas. So its quite a neat symbiotic relationship they've got." Methinks someone needs to learn the definitions of words before they use them!
 
Last edited:
The American alligator was moved to a larger enclosure (I think they said it was the old otter enclosure)

It was the new otter enclosure was finished and opened on Jan 5, the croc moved soon thereafter into the old one...

[just for interest's sake, the only crocodilians in NZ are Auckland's alligator, one or two alligators at Ti Point, and a saltwater croc at Napier Aquarium.

Two at Ti point, the female is the sister of the one at Auckland Zoo...

The red pandas were also moved to a new enclosure, although they didn't say why or what the old one would be used for.

There were two red panda enclosure side by side, they are now being used for Tamarins in one and Agouti in the other...
 
episode nine

the golden lion tamarins (and their companion cottontop) were moved into the old cottontop enclosure.

Forest the not-so-small-now baby giraffe had developed a very large and obvious lump on his chest, so he was restrained in a crush cage and had the lump drained, which he got quite angry about :)

The Australian section keeper Asha took a jaunt off to Currumbin Sanctuary on the Gold Coast to have a look at some Australian animals, of which the filming concentrated on a black-headed python, echidna and Tasmanian devil (with quick shots of various other species)

Next week its back to tigers again :(
 
Always look forward to your synopsis of the programme Chlidonias, thanks for those.
 
Yes thanks for the tireless updates Chlidonais...
 
episode ten

there were four stories on The Zoo tonight. I think it may have been the final episode of the series, judging by the narrator's closing sentence ("and thus ends another year at the zoo...").

The first story was the tiger cubs going outside into their enclosure for the first time.

Second was that one of the golden lion tamarins had a mystery illness for which they had to anaesthetise her. It was interesting to note that in the operating room the vet wore a mask and surgical gloves but there were half a dozen other people in there with just their regular zoo clothes on. It turned out the tamarin had a kidney infection and got much better after treatment. That's nice. Apparently she's twenty years old!

Third story was that the meerkats have had a second set of triplets. Their keeper filled a tunnel with straw and mealworms and they all had a jolly good time.

Fourth story was about two little piggies. The zoo has got two kune-kune piglets from a farm up north for their childrens' zoo. To get them used to being handled (or man-handled as the case may be, seeing as how they're going into a childrens' zoo), two keepers walked the piglets on leashes around the zoo. They were so fat and cute. The orangutans thought so too, even the lazy one.
 
I thought the first set of triplets was the first in the zoo's history... Two in a year would be unprecedented..!
 
episode eleven (sort of...)

well it seems last week's episode was the final one in the current series, but tv2 stuck in an extra episode this week called "The Zoo: This Is Your Life" about Kashin the elephant (who turned forty last week). Elephants don't really interest me all that much but the episode turned out to be very interesting, having old footage of Kashin in the early days and other elephants that have been kept over the period, interviews with past keepers, and even news footage regarding some loony who got into Kashin's stall and got punished by the elephant ;)

After the credits rolled came the copyright date of 2007, so it was from last year but none the less interesting for that.
 
Yes it was very good (I love historical footage..!) however I thought they overstated her health prospects at the end, it seemed to be, "She's had very poor health and now she's all fine", when in reality they wouldn't be having meetings now about Burma's future if Kashin was likely to see the big 5...0...
 
Back
Top